No. 6 UCSB Takes Second in SoCal Tournament

Derek Shoemaker (By Ron Robertson)

Sep 30, 2012

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- During day two of the Southern California Tournament, emotions ran high as No. 6 UC Santa Barbara (12-3) downed No. 2 UCLA (15-3) in an 11-10 battle. After a huge upset over No. 3 Stanford (6-2) in day one's nightcap, the Gauchos began day two against the Bruins at Dos Pueblos High School in the second semifinal game of the day. Handing UCLA its second loss of the season – its only other fall came against No. 1 USC at the NorCal Invitational – the sixth-ranked Gauchos marked the first lower-ranked team to defeat the Bruins. A rousing victory not only advanced the tournament hosts into the championship game, but also marked a monumental win for UCSB, which recorded its first win over UCLA since October 1992.

Though UCLA jumped ahead 1-0 in the first period, Gaucho Eric Van de Mortel put UCSB on the board with a goal at 2:31 to even the playing field. Junior Evan Dellinger improved UCSB's lead by one, scoring his first of two goals during the period on a penalty shot. With 14 seconds left, Dellinger again delivered as he out swam the Bruin defense, finessing a lobbed goal into the back of the cage to put UCSB ahead, 3-1, at the conclusion of the first quarter.

With momentum on their side, the Gauchos entered the second quarter with victory in sight. UCSB put forth an offensive explosion, tallying five more goals throughout the second period. Goals by Teddy Zhang, Derek Shoemaker, Matt Gronow, and Nick Tomasello allowed UCSB to outscore UCLA 8-4 by halftime.

Returning after the half, UCLA proved that it would not go down quietly. The Bruins counterattacked with four consecutive goals, Anthony Daboub delivered a tying 8-8 shot, before UCSB's game-leading scorer Derek Shoemaker answered back with the Gauchos' sole goal of the quarter to edge UCSB ahead.

An effective UCLA timeout fostered another goal for the Bruins, gridlocking the score once again.

The final quarter continued the emotional scoring feud, fostering four ejections and two penalties. With less than a minute remaining, a game-winning goal by Shoemaker leaped the Gauchos over UCLA, who tallied their second powerhouse upset of the weekend with a final score of 11-10.

Shoemaker led the Gaucho offense with four goals, while Myles Christian led with 10 saves.

In UCSB's final game of the weekend, the Gauchos fell to No. 1 USC in the SoCal Tournament championship game. After a couple early ejections in the first quarter, the Trojans quickly jumped ahead 3-0 before UCSB's Dellinger responded with the Gauchos' first goal of the game.

After a tough first quarter against the reigning national champions, UCSB fell behind 6-2. However, Christian – who tallied 10 saves – and the Gaucho defense were able to keep the Trojans' scoring to no more than three per quarter for the remainder of the game.

Goals contributed by Brendan McElroy, Brian Shoemaker and Van de Mortel kept the UCSB offense alive, but were not enough to trump the powerful USC offense.

UCSB was defeated 14-5 by the Trojans, yet after an amazing weekend of play, earned a well-deserved second place in the tournament.

The Gauchos are slated to play at home for their final three non-conference games of the season. The squad will host an Alumni game (Oct. 6) before playing a double header against Iona and Harvard (Oct. 7). UCSB will play two additional home games against Stanford (Oct. 13) and UCLA (Oct. 20) to kick off Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference action.